Lauren Atherton

Consultant, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning

An experienced researcher with expertise in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) and Project Management. She has over four years’ postgraduate experience working in the public and private sectors, writing bids and supporting the technical delivery of a variety of MEL projects in the international development sector, with thematic experience and interest in conflict, security and education.

Lauren has worked for IMC Worldwide for over two years. Starting firstly in the Frameworks team where she monitored and responded to framework call-down requests and managed large framework proposals, spending much of her time working on bids and projects relating to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), which led naturally to joining the IMC MEL team in June 2018.

Lauren currently works as MEL Expert on MEL Support to FCO Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) in West Africa, where she has led on evidence mapping for the Inception Phase. Additionally, she was tasked to lead a comprehensive literature review on security and justice programming in Nigeria which fed into a wider scoping study. She has recently completed management and research on the DFID funded: Contemporary Basic Education (CBE) Evaluation in Ghana, Independent Review of the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF), Mid Term Evaluation of the Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP) and the Evaluation of Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA).

Prior to joining IMC, Lauren worked for Konung International, where she was the Project Manager and Junior Evaluator for DFID’s LASER (Legal Assistance for Economic Reform) Mid-Term Review, and additionally worked on the VFM analysis of a women’s economic empowerment (WEE) programme in Pakistan. Additionally, Lauren has worked at Faith Matters, a non-profit which works on cohesion, interfaith dialogue, monitoring anti-Muslim hate crime and countering extremism projects in the UK, Pakistan and the MENA region. She prepared bids and grant proposals for DCLG, EU, MoD, and FCO submission. In addition to this, she organised the first National Anti-Hate Crime Awards and contributed to the set-up of an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hate Crime.

Alongside working at IMC, Lauren is currently undertaking an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development at SOAS, University of London which will be completed in 2020, where she is undertaking modules in conflict, research, migration, war to peace transitions and humanitarian aid. She is passionate about peacebuilding, reconciliation, countering extremism and conflict resolution. In her spare time, she supports Rwandan Genocide survivor, Hyppolite Ntigurirwa, with his ongoing peace initiatives and fundraises for blood cancer charity and stem cell register, Anthony Nolan, for which she ran the 2017 London Marathon.

Qualifications

MSc (In View) in Violence, Conflict and Development, SOAS, UK

BSc First Class (Hons) in Politics and Sociology, University of Bristol, UK.